What if the coronavirus could be stopped in its tracks before being breathed, before being touched, before killing a neighbor, a co-worker, or a beloved friend or parent?

It’s not a fantasy. A Memphis company is working as fast as it can to fill orders for devices that will kill all known airborne pathogens, including COVID-19.

What’s the fatal ingredient? Light, specifically ultraviolet light generated at the UVC spectrum (280 to 320 nanometers). It makes pathogens sterile. They cannot reproduce. They cannot sicken. They cannot kill. They cannot terrorize a city or a country.

“Half a second exposure, it’s neutralized. It cannot replicate or colonize or harm,” said David Skelton, owner of EvergreenUV Environmental Disinfection at 1931 Thomas, which uses the Lumalier brand of fixtures.

There’s one hiccup. Finding the supplies for the UVC germicidal air disinfection units is difficult right now due to demand and supply chain disruptions. Lamps, or bulbs, are the critical component and the hardest part to find.

Skelton is anxious to get the bulbs because orders for the UVC devices have skyrocketed. Everyone wants to kill the coronavirus.

“Last year we sold 30,” Skelton said. “Right now, as we speak, I have 1,100 on order. And they all want them now. I’m not even able to go to lunch. The phones don’t stop. Everyone is in crisis mode, and we have the solution.”

A portable version of the device looks a little like a bug light. A circular cage surrounds the UVC bulbs, which emit a bluish light. The cage and bulbs sit on a base with a touch screen control panel. A unit made for permanent installation in ambulances and other vehicles is rectangular.

EvergreenUV also sells units for installation with air conditioning systems and other UV products.

The cost of a UVC unit starts at about $1,800 and rises to about $4,000. EvergreenUV typically sells the units through its distributors and direct mail to customers.

Because UVC light may burn the eyes, a unit can only be used in an empty room or empty vehicle. However, an air-conditioning system unit can purify air in an occupied space.

The technology, which can be suited for institutions, businesses and residences, isn’t an unknown.

According to the International Ultraviolet Association, which added a COVID-19 page to its website, ultraviolet light is a “known disinfectant for air, water and surfaces” and can help mitigate the risk of a coronavirus contact infection “when applied correctly.”

Despite the history of germicidal light, installation of UVC units has been a lower priority for many decision-makers. That is, until the coronavirus began circling the globe. The 50 UVC bulbs that EvergreenUV keeps in stock were swiftly depleted.

“We’re having to go all over the world,” said Skelton, who spends his days searching for the special lamps. “I’m buying bulbs out of Italy, Hungry, Poland and Japan. I’m buying whatever I can buy.”

He’s got 6,000 bulbs on order from his usual supplier, a Phillips manufacturing plant in Poland, but there hasn’t been a shipment in 60 days.

“I could throw bodies at it,” said Skelton, who has increased his typical work crew of 14 by a full-time employee and four on-call part-timers. “We could hire even more if we had the parts available. We just picked up a vendor on Presidents Island. Our problem is not people but finding the supplies.”

The government is his biggest customer. Typically, EvergreenUV installs them in places like executive and legislative buildings and in prisons, but this week a branch of the military called. That’s all hush-hush right now. No orders yet.

He also puts UVC devices in hospitals. The Veterans Administration health care system recently placed an order for 650 of the germ-killing light machines. Another company wants them for ambulances.

“In back of an ambulance or in a bus at five feet away, takes about 18 seconds to kill,” Skelton said. “Take it in a bigger room, the longer it takes. If the area is shadowed 50%, it takes twice as long.”

EvergreenUV products were placed in all University of Memphis administration buildings and classrooms (not the dorms) about 10 years ago, Skelton said. Methodist Germantown-Hospital also has been a client.

And though Skelton has pitched the UVC product in Memphis for years, the bulk of his company’s business comes from places like California and Kentucky.

Skelton got into the business of selling UVC devices in 2004 after a personal brush with its effectiveness. After his father died, he moved his mother from Florida to Memphis. She had a chronic lung disease, COPD. He had a UVC unit installed to improve the air quality.

“My mom went from a wheelchair to a walker to a cane,” Skelton said.

Anytime an epidemic arises, such as SARS, EvergreenUV’s sales spike, but this pandemic – Skelton’s never seen anything like this.

Steve Chandler, owner of At Last Pest Control in Memphis, typically gets calls about bugs people can see, but now he’s selling UVC units to kill bugs people cannot see.

“I sold 20 units yesterday. That’s huge,” said Chandler, who tells customers the wait is four to five weeks. “The heightened interest is ridiculous. The weird part about this is it almost sounds like snake oil, but this stuff works. I’ve had one in my house for 15 years.”

Neil Zeid works for a St. Louis area company, EA Medical LLC, which plugs EvergreenUV’s products to the EMS and first-responder markets. His clients include ambulance users and manufacturers.

“UVC light gets all the hard-to-reach spots. It only takes minutes to use,” Zeid said. “It’s an ideal product. Right now, people are ordering them as fast as they can.

“The business is a record-selling business,” he said, “but what about the next one? We better be prepared.”